The subject of the present invention in general pertains to a new Input-Output facility design that exploits high bandwidth integrated network adapters.
In a network computing environment, multitudes of commands and requests for retrieval and storage of data are processed every second. To properly address the complexity of routing these commands and requests, environments with servers have traditionally offered integrated network connectivity to allow direct attachments of clients such as Local Area Networks (LANs). Given the size of most servers, the number of clients usually is in the range of hundreds to thousands and the bandwidth required in the 10-100 Mbits/sec range. However, in recent years the servers have grown and the amount of data they are required to handle has grown with them. As a result, the existing I/O architectures need to be modified to support this order of magnitude increase in the bandwidth.
In addition, new Internet applications have increased the demand for improved latency. The adapters must support a larger number of users and connections to consolidate the network interfaces which are visible externally. The combination of all the above requirements presents a unique challenge to server I/O subsystems.
Furthermore, in large environments such as International Business Machines Enterprise System Architecture/390 (Enterprise System Architecture/390 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation), there are additional requirements that the I/O subsystem must remain consistent with existing support. Applications must continue to run unmodified, and error recovery and dynamic configuration must be preserved or even improved. Sharing of I/O resources must be enabled as well as the integrity of the data being sent or received. This presents new and complex challenges that need to be resolved.
In order to achieve bandwidths which are dramatically higher and still achieve other required challenges, a new system architecture is needed.
This application is being filed on the same day as the following related applications: PO9-99-013, Ser. No. 09/253,246; P09-99-014, Ser. No. 09/253,250; P09-99-015, Ser. No. 09/253,247; P09-99-016, Ser. No. 09/253,248; P09-99-017, Ser. No. 09/252,712; P09-99-018, Ser. No. 09/252,552; P09-99-019, Ser. No. 09/252,728; P09-99-020, Ser. No. 09/252,730; P09-99-021, Ser. No. 09/253,101; P09-99-022, Ser. No. 09/253,286; P09-99-023, Ser. No. 09/252,542; P09-99-024, Ser. No. 09/253,249; PO9-99-025, Ser. No. 09/252,556, and P09-99-031, Ser. No. 09/252,727.
A method and apparatus for exchanging data in a network computing system having a main storage capable of connecting to at least one application server and an interface element with at least one adapter capable of establishing processing communication with at least one application user(s). A state change signalling protocol is used for transfer of data between the main storage and said adapter. In addition a queuing mechanism is established in the main storage having a plurality of queues each with a plurality of buffers. Some of these queues are dedicated to be input and others as output queues. By applying the protocol each input and output data buffer is associated with each of the active input and output queues. In this manner the input and output buffers are managed by placing the buffers into various states which are maintained in a special location that is set aside and is associated with each buffer. After complete transmission of data, the state of each such buffer is changed in order to make it buffer available for reuse.